It’s always wonderful when you see someone’s hard work and dedication rewarded with recognition. I’m not on this list (yet), but if I work harder I might be someday. In the mean time, I hope you will visit the MyHeritage site and visit some of the honored genealogy sites. Good for you guys!

This is the only photo I have of my Great Grandmother Cerilda Yates and to me, it’s priceless. After having seven children Cerilda died an unneccesary death from “child bed fever”. What that amounts to is unclean conditions when she was giving birth. We do have a group picture of her surviving siblings taken some decades later, and most of the women look very much alike. Don’t you just love the dress Cerilda is wearing?

The photo is special to me too because it’s the only photo we have of Jim Yates’ younger sister Myra. Myra died from tuberculosis in 1888 when she was twenty-two years old. Jim and Myra had both migrated from Roane County, Tennessee to Howell County, Missouri with their step-uncle Gideon Morrison. Another sister, Lydia, was left behind in Tennessee because she was “too young”. I am not sure what that means, but, in any case she stayed in Roane County and married Clement Clark.

Another mystery is that if you look at the enlarged version of this photo and compare it to the tintype above it looks like both women are wearing the same pin at their neckline. Since Myra Yates was born in 1866, and it is possible this tintype was taken sometime in that era, the woman in the tintype is certainly not Myra. It is possible that the picture is Mary M. Kelsey Yates, her mother.

As a side note, when I was looking through the Missouri digital archives for death records for our Yates family I found two for a Deborah E. Yates who died 22 September 1888. That’s the same date Myra died, so I think that her real name was given. My family is ‘famous’ for going by nicknames and middle names, darn it all. The name Deborah is significant because that was also the name of Myra’s grandmother. Deborah Holmes b. sometime around 1825 was married (1) to Miles Yates, and (2) to William Deatherage Morrison. William D. Morrison was the father of Gideon P. Morrison with whom Jim and Myra had migrated with to Howell County, MO.

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I am participating in Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt at Genea-bloggers on Facebook. Won’t you join us?!

Week #1: Upload your favorite picture and talk about it on your blog. Answer the who/what/when/where/why of the subject matter and explain why it is your favorite.

This subject came up a few years ago: Do we all have pictures of kids in goat carts? I was surprised to see how many of my friends and family had similar pictures. Do you have one? Here is my submission to the challenge. Let’s see how many different ones we can share!

I believe this might be boys in the Wilkerson or Baldwin family, but I don’t know for sure. That’s one sturdy looking goat, don’t you think?

Carnival of Genealogy

I don’t usually make New Year’s goals, but here are some things I hope to accomplish this year in my personal and professional genealogy:

Last month I ordered a Civil War pension file for George O. Barlow, an ancestor of my niece-in-law Jill Hohensee Yates, and after it comes in the mail I hope to glean some additional information from it before sending the records on to Jill’s mom Carol. I’ve been doing some research on Mr. Barlow through Ancestry and other sites too, as well as collecting pictures of headstones from Find-A-Grave. When I feel I have ‘enough’ and have reached a stopping place in the research, I plan on putting it all on disk for a backup version and then printing most of it off for a notebook to give to the family.

Genealogy vs Real Life

My own family research has taken a far back seat this last year as my husband and I adjust to him being retired. When he was working I could allow myself several hours a day of an uninterrupted wallow in my paperwork, pictures and emails as I forged ahead filling in the family trees. We have some home projects going this year (bathroom remodel, raised bed garden) but once those are done I might be able to get some genealogy done. I would really like to have a cook to make meals so I would only have to show up to eat. 😉

It’s a never-ending quest to find my ancestor Miles Yates who married Deborah Holmes in 1840 Roane County, TN. I suspect Miles might have been a ‘family’ name, and his real first name was something else.

After I find the article again, I want to write about one of my Holmes cousins who was on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour as an award winning fiddle player. She was self-taught and lived in Missouri and Iowa during the time she held her champion titles. I know she was one of my Holmes cousins, but I need to find the newspaper articles about her to state her full name. So many cousins, so little memory.

These few things should keep me busy all winter and spring, don’t you think? What are your genealogy goals for 2010?

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using the carnival submission form (http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_346.html).